England’s loss to France earlier this month was a “wake-up call” and it will be “game on” for Saturday’s rematch in Marseille, says Jack Brown.
The second part of this month’s double-header takes place in the Palais des Sports de Marseille from 14:00 GMT.
“We won’t let the occasion get the better of us,” Brown told BBC Sport.
“We’ll be a lot more switched on and putting the World Cup to bed really.”
A crowd of more than 2,300 at the First Direct Arena saw England struggle defensively three weeks ago, with France scoring 30 unanswered points in the first half.
Brown, who played his first international in 2005 and now lives in Australia, says that France’s tactics caught England by surprise in that game, with the hosts making “a lot of uncharacteristic errors”.
He added: “On the day we didn’t particularly hit all of the marks that we wanted to in terms of our tactics and our usual playing style.
“On top of that, France played an incredible game. They actually played a lot more like our style of football. I don’t think we were expecting them to play exactly as we do and we didn’t react very well to our own aggressive style of defence.
“Now it’s the wake-up call and now it’s game on. Now we know what they want to do, what their plans are and we will be ready for it.
“I don’t think the crowd will be as big as it was for First Direct but if it is that’s just more noise for us, we play better as the hunter rather than the prey. If we have people shouting against us, it probably helps.”
The top two sides in the world have dominated the sport, with France winning the 2013 and 2017 World Cups before England’s 28-24 victory in Manchester last year.
The success of last year’s tournament significantly raised the profile of wheelchair rugby league and Brown was delighted to see the public’s response to the game at Leeds this month, which was shown live on BBC Two.
“We thought the World Cup was the absolute pinnacle. There was so much planning that went into that and it was such a good spectacle to watch and we didn’t think that we’d be able to get the funding or backing or support to put anything on like that again,” he said.
“But the First Direct Arena looked fantastic, over 2,000 people there and half a million people watching on TV as well. The hunger to watch the game is there and it’s really good that we can get the backing from the BBC and the RFL (Rugby Football League) to keep it up. If we can keep riding that wave and keep pushing, we can only get more people involved in the sport and grow the sport even bigger.”
Brown, who is a non-disabled player, became involved in wheelchair rugby league in 2005 so he could compete alongside his younger brother Harry, who lost both his legs after contracting meningitis as a baby. Harry later switched his focus to wheelchair basketball and has been part of Great Britain teams who have won world and European championships, plus bronze medals at the past two Paralympic Games.
Now 33, Brown has enjoyed being home in Halifax this month but next week he will be heading back to Townsville, in Queensland. He plays and coaches in Australia but says there are practical challenges to growing the sport in such a vast country.
“Everything is a very long way away, he said. “We have to organise chairs and equipment on flights. Our closest team is a 16-hour drive.”
Brown says he intends to “play as long as I can” and hopes to see the sport develop further by the time of the next World Cup in 2026.
He added: “I want to get the international stage bigger, Australia, Wales, Ireland, USA all developing in the same way, getting a bit more funding and recognition so we can bring that level up to be more of a level playing field across all countries.
“It’s been England-France for a very long time, since the beginning of the sport. When it comes to the next World Cup, it would be nice not to know who will be in the final.”
England have named an unchanged squad for Saturday’s match.
England: Tom Halliwell (Leeds Rhinos, captain), Seb Bechara (Catalans Dragons), Jack Brown (North Queensland Cowboys), Josh Butler (Leeds Rhinos), Nathan Collins (Leeds Rhinos), Joe Coyd (London Roosters), Rob Hawkins (Halifax Panthers), Lewis King (London Roosters). Ninth player: Wayne Boardman (Halifax Panthers)
